"..Republican Chris Christie and Independent Chris Daggett received nearly 55% of the votes cast..".  That's like saying Bill Gates and I make up a net worth of $43.2 billon.

"Decentralizing education is the necessary first step to reduce taxes and spending in New Jersey"

Let's start by spinning off the state colleges into private, free market entities and make them charge full tuition based on competitive market rates. This will force state colleges to cut costs to be competitive, which means a certain finance professor at one of these state welfare instituions will have to spend more time actually teaching students than running for office and posting silly columns on PolitickerNJ, or find some other taxpayer-funded trough to feed from.

christiegonewild.blogspot.com

Are you kidding me? The likelyhood of most students would choose to go out of state then. That's the main reason why Rutgers is growing at such a high rate... the cost...

Christie has a huge economic problem infront of him, and an added 1 billion dollar deficit between question 1 on the ballot and beach replenishment from this last storm on the Jersey shore.

I think it's funny how we don't hear anything from his 88 ways to change New Jersey huh? makes you really wonder if you voted for the man, or the party/idea...

I don't see any reason to believe that the office of the governor can actually accomplish any of the goals set out in Dr. Sabrin's thoughtful piece.

The most recent election was a rejection of Jon Corzine, nothing else. The people of the People's Republic of New Jersey have not changed their ideology, and any attempt to change policies through government action along the lines suggested by Dr. Sabrin (and I don't think any such attempt will be forthcoming) will result in either the impeachment of the governor or his certain rejection at the polls four years hence.

Dr. Sabrin should know that the GOP is NOT AN IDEOLOGICAL PARTY. It is no different than the Democratic Party in that its sole purpose to to gain and keep political office and to control the pot of money that goes through Trenton for the benefit of its members and favored interests. Nothing more.

Because the major political parties control the levers of government, the ONLY way systemic change can occur (and that's what's needed, systemic change) is for a major economic collapse to occur. Such a collapse will serve to discredit the political structure and will cause people to rethink their reliance upon and faith in government-as-manager of the society/polity.

Real change never occurs through politics and government. Political entities will continue to serve only their own parochial interests. It's in the nature of the beast . . . it's the raison d'etre of political parties.

Of course, Dr. Sabrin is wholly correct respecting the immediate need to decentralize every aspect of civic decision-making down to the individual/neighborhood . . . something political types simply cannot do without destroying their own sustenance.

Change we shall have to accept (not change we can believe in) is certainly coming . . . and fast. And there's nothing that Mr. Christie can do about it . . . even if he wanted to.

Murray's last few post clearly demonstrate a complete lack of ability and consitant analysis.
1) Murray somehow now thinks that government can help the economy when for years he screamed that government was the problem. I quote "Christie must order his transition team to draw up a plan to decentralize. In other words, some state government functions have to be streamlined, some have to be abolished and some have to be returned to counties, municipalities, communities, families and individuals.
This is the list Christie's transition team has to develop immediately. If Christie has less than a total commitment to a much leaner state government, a less costly state government, and ending unfunded state mandates on municipalities, he will have lost the opportunity to turn New Jersey's economy around" That is two paragraphs of nothing right there. But he will move onto education and we'll see how equally flawed that idea is. Plus, Murray argues that C can fix NJ economy through policies he puts in place-odd coming from Murray.
2) By Murray's logic if 55% of NJians rejected Corzinism than 51% of NJ rejected "Christism." Very shotty, very very shotty especially considering that Murray gives Christie a mandate when he won 49% of the vote.
3)Murray's political analysis is amateur at best. Dagget's candidicy was a classic third party collapse. Whenever seemingly upstart and credible 3 party candidates emerge (for better or worse) they pick up speed to about 10% in the polls, then election day gets close and people dont want to throw their vote away. Of course there are a few exceptions (Perot 1992) but by and large CD performed as most 3rd party candidates do. CC's attacks on CD were essentially useless, and by Murray's analysis we are to believe that CD would be Gov-elect had CC not hit him with some tv ads-highly highly unlikely. If this is all it takes than JSC should have won because he issued numerous negative ads against Christie-it just doesnt work that way. CD lost because he never reached numbers that indicated that he could win this election. "Period."
4) Murray says CC needs to stop "overspending, onerous taxes, unnecessary regulations" ok, but what, how? its a platitude nothing more.
5)Murray's plan to fix NJ is decentralization and in particular in education. That makes sense in state where there are 566 municipalities and 576 (Or so) school districts...I think its obvious that the problem is schools (and towns) are not centralized enough! He also ignores that abbot spending does directly impact the tax levy that needs to be issued because abbot spending goes towards funding the schools-a form of property tax relief (However, there is a seperate argument here and that is though towns receive abbot funding their taxes still increase-and again the solution is centralization or consolidation-but Murray does not introduce this)
Murray proves time and time again that he has a very limited understanding of public life

"Murray proves time and time again that he has a very limited understanding of public life"

You're wrong. To the contrary, Murray understands public life better than anybody. He understands the public schools he went to, the public colleges and universities he attended, and the public employment he currently enjoys.

And of course, lest we forget, the million dollars worth of public financing he got when he ran for Governor twelve years ago.

christiegonewild.blogspot.com

Respectfully, Murray might enjoy the benefits of the public sector, but his work shows a complete lack of understanding.

You lost your credibility and no one cares what you think anymore. I think you should never have played football without your helmet on.

You might wind up writing your commentary from a rubber room with crayons so you can't hurt yourself. 

"If you don't read the newspapers, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspapers, you are misinformed."  - Mark Twain

"You lost your credibility and no one cares what you think anymore."

You betcha!!

christiegonewild.blogspot.com

Murray,

 I actually liked your posts. Until "You Betcha". I have to agree that it is going to be a long time before anybody puts any creedence in what you write. --Francois Rabelais

"Republican Chris Christie and Independent Chris Daggett received nearly 55% of the votes cast."

And, Democrat Jon Corzine and Independent Chris Daggett received nearly 51% of the votes cast.

Some mandate.